Draco's Dog Days
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: Sirius and Remus are faced with potential chaos when they're made to babysit a young Draco for the day. one shot. Voldemort never existed!AU.


**Author's Note:** Written for…

Big/Lil Sis Team Prompt Competition II. _Prompts:_ Sirius/Remus, an unexpected visitor, just before dawn, holding hands, "I wish"

Ludo Game Challenge. _Prompts:_ dog, cat, hippogriff

 **Draco's Dog Days**

Remus was always amazed by Sirius' ability to sleep through anything, like a thunder storm, or the time the house almost burned down. That was not even mentioning the plethora of pranks than ensued at Hogwarts once everyone discovered that Sirius slept as soundly as a dragon.

It was really no surprise then that he slept through the persistent knocking on their front door. Remus was always up early to cook breakfast, even on the weekends. He had expected the knocking to be from James. Who else would be calling on them before the crack of dawn? So it was with spatula in hand and wearing an apron that read ' _Mr. Good Lookin' is Cookin'_ ' that Remus opened the door to greet the Malfoys.

"Sorry to bother you," Narcissa said quickly. She looked like she was trying not to smile.

Remus looked at Lucius, who wasn't even bothering to hide his laughter. Between the two of them stood Draco, admittedly the second-most adorable toddler Remus had the pleasure of knowing, impossibly cute in his snitch-covered jumper and tiny cloak.

"Is everything alright?" Remus asked, stepping aside to allow them to enter the foyer.

"We really need your help," Narcissa told him, taking her son's hand and tugging him into the house. "Lucius and I are meant to be having a day to ourselves-"

"Planned months in advance," Lucius put in quickly.

"Andromeda was going to babysit for us but she's had to cancel. The whole family has come down with the dragon pox, you know."

Remus nodded. He and Sirius had sent over some potions and biscuits.

"We were hoping you and Sirius might be able to help," she continued. "He did promise to look after Draco one of these days, and we'd hate to cancel our reservations."

There was really no choice in the matter. Sirius had indeed promised to babysit for his cousin, and it wasn't as if they had any plans for the day.

"I suppose we-"

"Fantastic," Narcissa replied cheerfully. She knelt down to give Draco a farewell hug while Lucius shoved a small bag into Remus' arms. The next thing he knew, the couple was disapparating.

He sighed, looking down at his new charge.

"Are you hungry, Draco?" Remus asked, shouldering the bag Lucius had given him.

The boy nodded, reminding Remus just how shy he was.

"Help me wake Sirius up and I'll make us all chocolate chip pancakes," he promise, and he led the boy to the master bedroom where Sirius was sprawled across the bed, snoring loudly.

Draco wasted no time in scrambling onto the bed. He sat cross-legged next to his cousin's head for a moment, taking in his surroundings and weighing his options, before beginning to poke at the man's stomach.

Remus watched from the doorway with a smirk. Sirius was going to kill him later, but it was probably worth it. Probably.

It only took about three pokes to get Sirius jumping out of bed. As predicted, he tried to strangle Remus once he woke up enough to realize what was happening and stop screaming that there was a goblin in their bed.

Breakfast was quiet as Sirius consumed large amounts of coffee and Remus attempted to impress their young visitor with his pancake-flipping skills. Afterwards they settled in the den with one of the fifty or so kids' movies they kept around for their weekends with Harry.

Sirius began to doze a half an hour into Bambi, leading Draco to crawl over to him on the couch and tug on his hair. Sirius bolted up immediately and the boy recoiled.

"Son of a-"

"Don't swear in front of the child," Remus reprimanded.

"I was _going_ to say hippogriff," Sirius defended.

"I'm bored," Draco whined, swinging his legs.

"How do you feel about dogs?" The boy's eyes lit up.

"I love them! Daddy says I can't have one though."

"That's because your dad has no taste. Anyway, I'll let you pet a dog if you promise not to pull his hair…"

"Sirius, no." The last thing they needed was Draco telling his parents that they had an unregistered animagus in the family, but the boy was already swearing not to hurt the dog and Sirius had that bloody glint in his eyes that told Remus he was too late in stopping the mayhem.

"Right, we're going out," the dark-haired man said, running around collecting coats and shoes and car keys. "Don't look so worried, Moony," he muttered as he rushed passed his husband.

:-:

To Remus' surprise, Sirius drove them to a pet shop. Not the Magical Menagerie, as he had suspected in the car, but a muggle shop a few miles from their house.

He made sure to hold Draco's hand as they went inside the massive shop full of loud squawking and barking. Sirius immediately headed for a nearby pen full of excitable puppies and Draco pulled Remus toward it too.

"Should I be concerned that you knew about this shop?" Remus asked his husband as he watched him brush a German shepherd.

"I come here sometimes when you're at work. I volunteer with the dogs." Sirius reached out a hand and three dogs ran to be petted by him. "I think I'm their favorite."

"I think I need to keep you on a shorter leash," Remus muttered. He turned back to where he'd left Draco with a lab puppy only to find the boy had moved on to the cat cages, sticking his fingers through the doors to scratch behind the cats' ears.

"I wish I could take you home," Draco whispered to an orange tabby. Remus ducked beside a turtle terrarium and pretended not to be eavesdropping. "Daddy doesn't like real pets. Only birds."

Remus sighed to himself, remembering how much he'd longed for a pet as a child, someone he could play with, and how adamant his own father had been that he would get a pet once he started school. Even now, with two owls and a sometimes-dog, he still had urges of wanting to adopt a dozen animals just to spite his father.

He looked back at Sirius, smiling at the look of pure joy on his husband's face as he played with his fellow canines. He'd been wanted a playmate for a long time…

' _I'm going to regret this_ ,' Remus told himself as he headed for the counter.

:-:

Lucius and Narcissa arrived at dusk to pick up their son. Remus answered the door again, a bit more suitably dressed this time.

"I hope Draco wasn't any trouble," Narcissa said as they waited for the son to collect his things.

"Not at all. We had a fun day with him."

Draco ran to his parents with mud on his shoes and his cloak askew. Lucius wrinkled his nose.

"What's that horrible smell?"

"It's Pumpkin!" the boy replied happily.

Sirius followed the boy into the foyer, carrying his tiny bag in one hand and an orange kitten perched on his shoulder. Barking could be heard from the den and he half turned back to yell, "Jupiter, Neptune, quiet down. I'll be back in a minute."

He handed the bag over to Draco and knelt down to allow the boy to give him and the kitten hugs.

"I didn't know you had pets," Lucius said, covering his nose.

"The dogs are ours. The cat is Draco's, and he's welcome to visit her any time," Sirius told him with a grin, ruffling Draco's hair.


End file.
